The Night Agent is Netflix’s next political thriller series, promising a twisting conspiracy, exciting action, and more. The series stars Gabriello Basso as Peter Sutherland, a low-level FBI agent, and Luciane Buchanan as Rose Larkin, a young tech CEO, who find themselves embroiled in a twisting and deadly plot. The ten-episode series was based on a book of the same name by New York Times bestselling author Matthew Quirk.
The Night Agent was created by accomplished writer, showrunner, and producer Shawn Ryan. Ryan’s previous work includes a number of both long-running hits and beloved network television shows including S.W.A.T., Timeless, and the well-cast series The Shield. In The Night Agent, Ryan works his way farther up the chain of command, with characters that include the White House Chief of Staff and a number of other government players.
Ryan spoke with Screen Rant about why he chose to adapt The Night Agent for television, casting his leads, and more.
Shawn Ryan on The Night Agent
Screen Rant: Given your previous work with shows like S.W.A.T. and The Shield, it seems like you're drawn to different aspects of these government agencies and the people within them. Is there something specific that makes you want to keep looking at different angles of this larger idea?
Shawn Ryan: I would say I always try to do something different in my shows. I've never done a political thriller before, but I have dealt with, in shows like The Shield and other things, the idea of power and the corrupting nature of it, and people vying for power within certain institutions, whether it's in a police station, whether it's in the military, et cetera. I think one things I was really interested in here was examining ambitious characters, some of whom have a lot of power, [and] some, like Peter, our main character, who [don't] have a lot of power. [I was interested in] how they interact with each other, and how they get forced to choose between bad things.
David Mamet once told me, when we are working on The Unit together, that good drama isn't a choice between good and bad; good drama is the choice between two beds. I've always taken that to heart, and I love the idea. I think about these people who wield so much power in the White House, and politically. How do you make a decision between this bad choice and this bad choice? Do you still believe yourself to be a good ethical person if you made a bad choice simply because it was less bad than the other bad choice? These are arenas that I'm always interested in, [and] that I really like diving into [in] the show. Of course, in addition to that, we've got a lot of twists and turns, and car chases, and things [like that], but that's one of the things that is an anchor for me in terms of what I wanted to do in the show.
The Night Agent is based on a book by Matthew Quirk. How did that come across your desk, and why did you choose to adapt that book as opposed to something else in the political thriller realm?
Shawn Ryan: I get presented a lot of things [to read] at a lot of times, and usually, I'm not big on adaptations. I want a little bit more space for my own original thoughts. In this case, I got given this book; I read it. The thing that appealed to me right away was that I was like, "These are the scenes. These are the characters. These are things that belong in a TV show, and these other things I don't need." I'd also been working on my own Secret Service idea that I hadn't quite fleshed out, and I saw a way that I could meld the book storylines with the storyline I've been working on and flesh [it all] out into an entire TV series. That really appealed to me.
I just love the hook of the book that Peter is about the lowest level FBI agent you can imagine, working in this windowless room in the basement of the White House, manning a phone that never rings. I was like, "This has to be the most boring job in the world," and within 25 minutes of screen time, it becomes the most exciting job. And, I just love the characters, and I think all great TV shows stem from, "Do you love the characters? Do you want to spend your valuable free time as a viewer with these characters?" I could see very quickly in my head how this could be a TV show, and so I just became very passionate about it.
It's so interesting what you just said about the process, especially blending this with your own original idea. Did you work with the author as you were developing this?
Shawn Ryan: I spoke to him, and, you know, he's very, very busy with his very successful novel writing career. He was interested in what was going on. I saw him last night; I was very happy because I saw him and his wife... A few weeks ago, I had invited him here to the office to watch the first episode, and he really loved it, [and] was very happy with it. Subsequently, Netflix allowed him and his wife to see all 10 episodes. I was a little afraid because we have changed a lot of things from the book, but he was so happy with how the show turned out, so happy with the characters he created, [and] a lot of things from the book that made it into the TV show. [He was also happy with] all the changes that we made, [and] the things that we added. It's very gratifying to know that the author is really happy with this, because we've heard stories in the past of authors who've hated the adaptations of their books.
He stayed very much out of the way. [He] was curious; [he] wanted to come up to set once, which he did. [He was] interested, obviously, in seeing the episodes when they were done. But in the same way I would stay out of his book writing, he has kind of kept away. There were times when I had questions about Peter and Rose, the characters, [where] I wanted to understand his thinking as he was writing, as I was writing. He was very helpful in that regard. He provided anything we asked of him, but other than that, he's just been an enthusiastic viewer.
Your two leads are amazing. I saw the trailer, and people in the comments were talking about how it was nice to see these actors getting bigger roles. Can you talk about how you cast the roles, and what you were looking for in your actors?
Shawn Ryan: Well, when a show gets picked up and you hire a casting director, the first thing is you just get a list of all these names. They're broken down into the offer-only people... and listen, I've done shows where we've hired offer-only people and it's worked out really well, and it's great, and the actor's a great match for the character. I always do love it, though, when somebody decides to audition and to fight for a role to sort of show you "Hey, I can do this better than anyone else."
While we were considering offer-only [actors], our casting people were doing a worldwide search for our Peters and our Roses, and our Diane Farrs. We saw all these people, and saw all these people, and I began to worry that we weren't going to find anyone in the audition process. That's sort of the process with Rose. I saw Lucianne's audition, it was just a self-tape that she did from New Zealand, her home country. I thought, "Wow, she's great. That's her, but I can't say that that's Rose until I know who Peter is, and know whether she'd make a good Rose to his Peter."
Gabriel came very late in the process. [In] his first audition, he had this big bushy beard, which really threw me off. I was like, "Well, this doesn't look like an FBI agent," and the whole sort of thing. You're forced to watch like 50-60 auditions a day, and so you're kind of scanning through quickly, and I kind of initially dismissed it just based on the look being wrong. Then, one of our casting people at Sony went back, because she knew we were having trouble finding the right people, and said, "You might want to re-look at these few auditions," and he was one of them.
I was like, "Let me ignore the beard." [Of course, it was really good, and] we called him back. Somebody had mentioned something to him so he had shaved, and all of a sudden I was like, "Oh my God, that's Peter." So, the process was really exhausting. What I love about Netflix is that a lot of other places would have demanded somebody in both those roles who are bigger names, even if they weren't right for the roles. Netflix is a place where you can make stars. You can bring people in, they buy the character, and they become stars. I really believe that these two actors have great things ahead of them. They're so fantastic, and I feel like we've bought two stocks at a great price, and that the stocks are only going to go way up.
And then, in the next biggest role, we hire Hong Chau, and who knows she's going to get nominated for an Oscar after we film? And SAG Awards. Shes' just having an incredible moment. People see The Whale and The Menu, her guest star in Poker Face, and now they're going to see her in this. And she's different in all four. It's sort of casting kismet with these three actors.
You mentioned Netflix, and I know you've done so much work on networks before. How different is it to develop a show for a streamer?
Shawn Ryan: I think you have to think about how the audience is going to view the show on Netflix, as opposed to how they watch a weekly TV show. For instance, in a political thriller, if we were to air [on] HBO, everyone would have a week to try to dissect and figure out your whole secret to where it's going. Some people, inevitably, would probably guess right. I knew Carlton (Cuse) and Damon (Lindelof) when they did Lost, and I know it was always a frustration; everyone in the world was trying to figure out what's happening in Lost, and inevitably, somebody would guess right. It was very frustrating for them.
Here, people are mostly going to binge the show, so you don't have to have the secrets hold quite as long. You're always building towards the end of the episode and having that scene at the end that makes people say, "I'm willing to give up one more hour of sleep to watch one more episode of it." Netflix also talked to me early on about the way they find more success on their shows. The original pilot I wrote had the storyline that now begins in episode 3 with the Vice President's daughter. They made the case to me, "Well, we tend to have more success when people can really plug into one specific storyline, a couple characters, and then the world opens up"
NBC and Peacock were very interested in the show, and they were happy to make it exactly as I'd written it. I think it would have been right to do that for them, but for Netflix, we changed it for how Netflix works best. I think we made the best version of the show that way. You have to be very cognizant of the outlet and how people on that outlet watch your show as you're crafting it.
You're great at choosing your cast and actors, and you've worked with so many amazing actors and actresses in previous projects. Are there any that you would like to find a role for in future seasons or episodes of this show?
Shawn Ryan: Wow, great question. Michael Chiklis and I always talk about working together again. That'd be great. Walton Goggins... You know, Glenn Close did a season for us on The Shield and we've stayed in touch, and she's amazing. I'd love to work with her again. We did a little show called Mad Dogs a while ago that had a really amazing cast of, like, Steve Zahn, Ben Chaplin, Romany Malco, Michael Imperioli; I love those guys, [and] would work with any of them again. Timeless was a really important show to us, and our three main actors on that, Abby, Matt, and Malcolm... and other people. That whole cast was amazing.
I always love to work with new actors for the first time but, for instance, [we cast] Robert Patrick in The Night Agent. This is the third show of mine that he's done, and so I adore working with him all the time. When you have a good experience with an actor, the way I've had with so many, you always look forward to working with them again.
About The Night Agent
Based on the novel by Matthew Quirk, The Night Agent is a sophisticated, character-based, action-thriller centering on a low-level FBI Agent who works in the basement of the White House, manning a phone that never rings -- until the night that it does, propelling him into a fast-moving and dangerous conspiracy that ultimately leads all the way to the Oval Office.
Check out our other The Night Agent interviews here:
The Night Agent will be released March 23rd on Netflix.